Yosemite National Park Seeking Volunteers

Yosemite National Park needs a few helping hands and is putting out a call for volunteers to help maintain and clean it up.

Yosemite is the third most visited national park in the country with four million visitors a year.

Park employees can't maintain the park properly without help so volunteers are needed.

Kenny Karst / DNC Parks and Resorts at Yosemite, Inc.

Park Ranger Ashley Mayer says from now until Labor Day volunteers can drop in at the Visitor Center every Wednesday at 9 in the morning and spend three hours working on a project.

"They could be helping with anything from trail restoration, they could be pulling invasive plant species, collecting data for research, counting cars, so any number of things. Frankly, we couldn't do what we do her without them," says Mayer.

Mayer says in the final week of September, the park will need 15-hundred or more volunteers to work on the Yosemite Facelift, which collects thousands of pounds of trash left in the park.

Volunteers should wear long pants, long sleeves, and bring snacks and water. The park will provide safety equipment, tools, and gloves.

As the Central Valley correspondent, Rich Ibarra covers San Joaquin, Stanislaus, and Merced counties, along with the foothill areas including Tuolumne and Calaveras counties. He covers politics, the economy and issues affecting the region. Read Full Bio